Sunday, Nov, 6, 2022: Consecration of the Church
The liturgical year of the Maronite Church opens with commemorations in honor of the Church of Christ. The two Sundays of the Church, the Sunday of the Consecration of the Church and the Sunday of the Dedication of the Church, although not directly connected with the Season of Announcement, the first of the liturgical seasons in which the life of Christ is reflected, form a fitting introduction to it. For these two Sundays teach us that the entire salvific mission of Christ today takes place through his Church.
The Old and New Testaments both use the term “corban” to indicate something consecrated to the Lord. Quite often an object was anointed with oil and then considered holy or set apart for the Lord. In the Old Testament, priests, kings, the meeting tent and its furniture, and the Ark of the Covenant were all anointed and thus consecrated to the Lord. In the New Testament, Jesus himself is called the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. In the Church today, we still anoint catechumens, those being chrismated, the sick, the priests and bishops, church buildings, and sacred vessels in order to set apart those people, places and objects as sacred, consecrated to the Lord.
In the Old Testament, the sacred object was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a symbol of the covenant between God and his people, as it originally contained the stone tablets of the ten commandments of God’s law. By means of the covenant, Israel was set apart as the chosen people, and Yahweh was to be their God. The Ark was the symbol of God’s personal and saving presence among his people. It was upon the Ark that the blood of atonement was sprinkled and it was before it that divine communications were received. As a sign of God’s leadership and protection for his chosen people, the Ark was carried before the army in battle.
In his prophecies, Isaiah refers to the servant of Yahweh as a “covenant of the people, a light for the nations.” This conenant of the people will establish justice on the earth, open the eyes of the blind, and free prisoners (Isaiah 42: 4, 6-7).
Jesus, the Anointed One, is the New Ark. His sacred person is the place where the divine and the human meet. He is the bearer of the good news. It is through the sacrifice of his body on the cross that sins are atoned for and his resurrection establishes an everlasting covenant between God and his people.
Through the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ, the Church has come into being and continues the mission of Christ in the world. It is now the Church which proclaims to mankind God’s saving love for the world.
The Sunday of the Consecration of the Church invites individual Christians to renew their personal consecration to the Lord and his Church, and to strive to realize God’s kingdom on earth.
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Synaxarion for the Consecration of the Church Sunday evening prayer (Ramsho), Maronite Divine Office.